LAT In 90 Seconds — Tupac Edition

Reality Check: The L.A. Times is reeling from the embarrassing revelation yesterday that a story linking Sean “Diddy” Combs to the murder of Tupac Shakur was, in a word, bullshit. In a story today by James Rainey (man, does that guy get the bum assignments), the paper does a mea culpa, apologizing for writing a story based on fabricated documents, and giving props to the Smoking Gun for figuring the whole thing out.

Get Out Your Checkbooks: Rap talent manager James Rosemond said the Times article created “a potentially violent climate in the hip-hop community.” His attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, added: “I would suggest to Mr. Philips and his editors that they immediately print an apology and take out their checkbooks — or brace themselves for an epic lawsuit.”

Questions Remain: We hope this isn’t the last we hear of this story because we still have a ton of questions. For one, Chuck Phillips says he believed the veracity of the forged FBI documents because they were filed in court. So, who filed them? Who masterminded this hoax? So help us, if Ashton Kutcher is involved, we’re gonna throw our computers out the window and move to a farm.